Career as a wandmaker

"Early in my career, as I watched my wandmaker father wrestling with substandard wand core materials such as kelpie hair, I conceived the ambition to discover the finest cores and to work only with those when my time came to take over the family business. This I have done."

According to Gervaise, it was impossible to fool a wizard or witch who carried a wand of cedar wood, an opinion that his son shared.[2]

As it was practice at the time, a customer would often present the wandmaker with a magical substance to which they were attached, or had inherited, or by which their family swore.[2] As such, Gervaise used a wide variety of wand cores. Early in his career, his son Garrick saw his father working with substandard wand core materials such as kelpie hair, kneazle whisker and Troll whisker. It was then that he conceived the ambition to work with only the finest cores, and thus discover the ideal wand.[2]

Appearances

Notes and references

↑On Pottermore - "New from J.K. Rowling: Pure-Blood", the Ollivanders are mentioned to have been included in the Pure-Blood Directory published in Britain in the 1930s. As Gervaise Ollivander was already alive by 1930, this establishes that he must be a pure-blooded wizard; his son was not a Pure-blood, however. This was due to Gervaise marrying a Muggle-born.